HARIKARI

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 28 December 1927, Page 5

HARIKARI

JAPANESE OFFICER’S ACT.

LAUDED AS A HERO.

CEREMONIAL SUICIDE. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 10.30 a.m. to-day. TOKIO, Dec. 27. Not since General Nogi committed harikari in 1902 has an act of ceremonial suicide among the higher classes so deeply stirred the nation, as that of Commander Mizuki, of the cruiser Jintsu, which in August, last struck and sunk a destroyer, with a loss of one hundred lives.

The act was committed on the eve of the delivery of the verdict of the court-martial.

Commander Mizuki deliberately cut his throat with a razor, standing before a. mirror dressed in his ceremonial costume, while his wife and children were within earshot. His wife brought in the children, who paid homage, to their father as a hero. She then informed his lawyer. Newspapers editorially extol the suicide as a noble act of exemplary selfimmolation, which will undoubtedly raise the standard of the national .sense of responsibility, irrespective of the verdict, which under the circumstances will never be published. It is authoritatively asserted that he was not guilty.. Admiral Okada, Minister of the Navy, and other admirals and fellow officers, laud Commander Mizuki as loyal to the cause of his Imperial master and the State.